The Christmas season is here and with it comes the myriad of popular songs that play on the radio, in stores, and even at the gas pump. You really cannot escape it completely! One popular song about Santa says “he knows when you are sleeping, he knows when you are awake, he knows if you’ve been bad or good so be good for goodness sake!” There are various problems, in my opinion, that come with endorsing Santa but all that aside, the point I want to focus on is how uncomfortable it is to think of someone watching everything you do. Not only is he watching you but then you end up on the naughty or nice list determining what kind of payout you get for your behavior. Thankfully our heavenly Father isn’t like Santa. We cannot work our way into heaven and for me that is good news! But this little lyric did make me pause and think about the way I act whether I think people are watching or at home by myself. If someone were to pop into my house unexpectedly, maybe you would find me dancing with the cat to Christmas music or perhaps still dressed in my night clothes at 3pm with messy hair hunched over the computer! Neither of those are show stopping things although they might be a bit embarrassing. But what if you popped in right when I was giving Ryan down the road about something? What if you popped in when I was complaining about something that happened at work? Would you feel a bit awkward? Would you rather be somewhere else at that moment? You all aren’t going to magically appear inside my home and neither is Santa, but God sees it all. And although sometimes what I say or do might make Him sad, He loves me anyway.
There is a hymn they sing at the church where I work called “Love Came Down at Christmas.” Jesus, the embodiment of love, came down to earth and lived a perfect life. He was the only human to do so. Many other Christians I’ve spoken with do not believe that you and I can live a perfect life. Obviously we’ve already blown it for “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Here is what the apostle John says, “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, ‘I know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked” (1 John 2:3-6). Notice the phrase “truly the love of God is perfected in him.” The “love of God” is the only source that can truly motive us for the right reasons. When I think of something that is perfect I think of something that doesn’t have a defect. In scripture those who brought sacrifices to the temple were to bring lambs without spot or blemish. But was that animal really perfect? To all outward appearances it was. But God has shown us through His Word and His sacrifice that He is really concerned about inward perfection. By coming near to Jesus through study of the Word, through prayer, through fellowship with other believers, then not only will God’s love will be “perfected” in us but our love for God will also be perfected.
And before you give up in despair and say I can’t or it’s too hard I’ll never be perfect, let me remind you that aside from Jesus every other person in heaven will have sinned prior to getting there! John didn’t say “the love of God is perfect in him” he said “perfected in him!” The small addition of two letters to the end of perfect lends the meaning that this is a process not a completion. “Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). When Jesus returns He alone will create us complete whole beings to live with Him for eternity. Until then, it is our job to strive for the goal so that we may honor Him and be a blessing to others not just to ourselves. God watches us day and night as a parent watches over their child. Not to write us on the naughty list but to encourage us, to guard and guide us, to ensure us of His great love for us, to motivate us to get up and keep going when we fall. “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).
When I wake up on Christmas morning, Santa will not have visited me. The presents I see now wrapped and ready for giving are the only ones I’ll see tomorrow. But Santa doesn’t matter and neither do those gifts. I remember once while growing up I woke up Christmas morning sick. Very sick. I don’t think my parents realized at that time how sick I was. It took a couple of weeks and some medicine from the doctor for me to get well. But on this morning, the morning most children look forward to all year I didn’t care about gifts. I didn’t want to open anything; I didn’t want to eat; I didn’t want to get out of bed. Who cares about gifts when you are not well enough to play with them? I thought about that this morning. Today is Christmas Eve and I’m sick. Not to the point I was back then, but still enough that it may “ruin” the festivities for me. I remembered back to that Christmas Day so seemingly long ago and I realized then as now how truly blessed I am whether I am able to do all the things we had planned to do this holiday or not. I still can celebrate God’s love and the amazing gift He has given us in His Son and look forward to that day when no one will be sick anymore. Instead of God watching over us from afar, we will see Him face to face. “But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:10-13).